Tim elected to UKPHA Council

At Tuesday's AGM of the UK Public Health Association, Tim was voted on
to UKPHA Council as a trustee. On the council Tim will represent the
views of the Chairs of the UKPHA's Special Interest Groups.

AQMRC and ISHE well represented at the UKPHA annual forum

AQMRC and the new Institute of Sustainability, Health and Environment
were well represented at the UKPHA public health forum in Brighton this
week. Over half a dozen people represented The University of the West
of England presenting a wide range of work, chairing sessions and
organising workshops.

RSC Interview with Jo

The January edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry Environmental Chemistry Group's biannual Bulletin features an interview with Jo Barnes http://www.rsc.org/images/ecgbull0901_tcm18-142982.pdf. Jo is the Honorary Secretary of the ECG and this interview offers a reflection on her move from Cornwall College to the AQMRC, UWE and on her career so far. For more information on Jo visit her webpage www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/jo.html.

Simon's case study interviews near completion.

Simon has been visiting south west local authorities to investigate the level of cooperative inter-professional engagement between officers dealing with air pollution and officers responsible for carbon management at a local level. This stage of the project will complement the research findings from earlier work (click here for more information) and will further investigate some of the barriers to integrated management highlighted by the questionnaire survey stage of the project.

Jo, Tim and Dotun to speak at Environmental Protection UK Spring Workshop

AQMRC will be represented by three speakers at the forthcoming Environmental Protection UK 2009 Spring workshop taking place on 2nd to 3rd April themed; Beyond the Limits: From Assessment to Action.

Jo will be speaking on "Training for Air Quality Professionals". She will be discussing the HERDA-SW project, which she is currently managing, in which AQMRC are currently developing a series of air quality and carbon management modules for air quality professionals in the South West Region (For more on the HERDA-SW project click here).

Tim will be sharing his vast knowledge on the LAQM process and a review of helpful information and where to get it in a friendly workshop setting to delegates who are new to the process.

Dotun will be speaking on "Air Quality and Local Transport Plan". He will be summarising the key findings from his 3-year research on the subject, and provide recommendations on how to keep air quality at the top of the agenda in the proposed LTP3 and improving engagement between the environmental health officers and transport planners. Find out more about Dotun’s research here.

Dotun concludes case study interviews

Dotun just concluded the case study interviews on the integration of air quality into the Local Transport Plan process at various local authorities in England. This involves visits to West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Greater Nottingham, Bedford, Devon, Leicestershire and Hampshire. He appreciates the support and encouragement he received from all the participants.

Rose attends Carbon Connections conference

Rose attended the second Carbon Connections conference, 'Success through Innovation - Knowledge Transfer and the path to a low carbon economy', held at the Natural History Museum, London, on 12th March. Speakers included Prof. Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra, and Jonathon Porritt, Founder Direcrtor of Furum for the Future, who spoke on the urgent need for mitigation of climate change, and the ways we might do this in the UK.

Carbon Connections, based at the University of East Anglia, is an investment body, set up by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to seek out, encourage and invest in carbon-saving innovation either through technological advance or behavioural change.

Rose presents at RGS-IBG postgraduate forum mid-term conference

Rose presented her research at the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum mid-term conference, at the University of Plymouth, on 7th March. The conference provided an opportunity for a large number of postgraduates to present their research, and gain feedback from other postgraduate research students working on all aspects of Geography. The conference also included poster presentations and exhibitions, and workshops addressing aspects of postgraduate development. Rose's presentation can be downloaded here.
Rose has nominated herself as next year's conference organiser, with the help of other research students in the faculty, and is hoping UWE will win the vote! Watch this space for news...

Welcome back, Nicky

AQMRC is delighted to announce that Dr Nicky Woodfield will be working with AQMRC on a range of projects in the next year.

Nicky was the first appointment to AQMRC back in 1997 and as well as coordinating the work of the Centre studied part time for a PhD which was awarded in 2004. Her thesis was entitled Conflict and consensus in spatial and temporal designations of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) to secure air quality objectives in Great Britain and her research led to a large number of papers and conference presentations. The staff in AQMRC look forward to working with Nicky on a range of LAQM projects.

Farewell and Good Luck, Nurul

After 8 years in Bristol, first as a PhD student and then as a Research Fellow, AQMRC has bid farewell to Dr Nurul Leksmono. Nurul has returned to her home city of Jakarta, Indonesia to work for the environmental consultancy ERM. We wish Nurul well in this the next part of her career and we look forward to the opportunity for collaborating on some interesting and challenging new projects.

Nurul first joined AQMRC in 2001 to study for a PhD funded by the Environment Agency. Her PhD 'Sustainable, proportionate and cost-effective action plans to deliver air quality objectives within AQMAs' explored the relationship between the LAQM and the IPPC regimes and focused on the application of the above principles within the development of air quality action plans. Her PhD was supervised by Jimi Irwin, Katy Ling and Jim Longhurst.

Following the award of her PhD Nurul worked on a range of AQMRC projects including the ESRC 'Science in Society' project 'Consultation as Science Communication' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/esrc/), the ESRC Impact project 'Mediating Consultation: Private Sector Consultancies Engagement in Local Air Quality Management Consultation' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/Mediating_Consultation.html) as well as providing technical and policy support for AQMRC activities including the Defra Review and Assessment contract and a wide range of LAQM projects.

Everyone in AQMRC will miss Nurul greatly, and wish her all the best.